We are into the season of Pentecost one of the longest seasons in our church year. As Andy mentioned a couple of Sundays ago, it is the season to pause and reflect upon our faith and just what it means.
The Easter season leading up to the Ascension of our Lord into heaven must have been an emotional roller coaster for the apostles. First their beloved Jesus was taken from them and crucified, betrayed by one of their own. Their immediate sorrow was short lived by the resurrection. Jesus was alive again. But he warned them that his time with them would be very short. He ascended into heaven and promised that he would leave them with the Holy Spirit to guide them. Once again they were plunged into uncertainty. How could a Spirit replace Jesus who comforted the sick and raised the dead? He and the disciples had walked together many miles, and broken bread together. Jesus constantly preached to them speaking often in parables that stretched their minds and sometimes berated them for their lack of attention. How could something as intangible as the Holy Spirit replace the love and friendship that He had offered them?
Jesus worked hard to prepare his followers for the time when he would no longer be there physically there. In the passage Linda read from Matthew this morning he gives them a little lesson in house building. Following His teachings and not losing faith in God was likened to building a house on a firm rock foundation. All the storms of or troubled life will not knock that house from its foundation. Indeed Christ echoed the words of the Psalmist who in Psalm 46 tells us that God is our shelter and our strength and that by having faith in him we needed fear even if mountains fall into the ocean depths.
Too often today many people place their faith in other things. They feel secure by the number of possessions they have or by the amount in their bank accounts or their total assets in their investment or retirement savings plans. Some worship the god of Science believing that this holds all the answers for us. If we can’t prove God by science than simply God doesn’t exist. Christ warns us that putting our faith in anything but God is like building a house upon the sand. Our financial fortunes may change and the house will be washed away. Attempting to amass more and more riches or possessions often leads to stress. Stress is a great factor in promotion health problems and can lead to high blood pressure, strokes or other things that destroy health. We might try so hard to amass wealth that we end up in an early grave. For what? As the old saying goes you can’t take it with you.
Paul mentions in his letter to the Romans that there I a big payback for us if we keep our faith in Christ. Christ has come to take away all of our sins and by simply believing in him and following his teachings all of our sins are forgiven. In Matthew Jesus has made it very clear what trusting in Christ and putting our faith in Him means. . It isn’t good enough to merely say we believe in him. Words need to be put into actions. Following Christ means living your life by what he teaches us. We must always put God first, love our neighbours as ourselves and live every day walking in His footsteps.
We hear a lot today about evangelism. We are told Presbyterians need to be more “evangelistic.” Does this mean we should be out on the streets knocking on doors, standing on street corners or perhaps inside Wal-Mart proselytizing anyone who will listen to us? It is clear from what Jesus is saying in Matthew that this is not the type of evangelism that makes us Christians or even demonstrates the depth of our faith.
Reverend Ina was an example of what I call quiet evangelism. Her faith was a big part of who she was and she wasn’t afraid to speak of it openly. Yet her faith was demonstrated as much by what she did as anything she said. Our church was enriched and many lives enhanced by what she did not just in our church but also in the community as a whole. She could preside at funerals even when she did not know the family well. Anyone who attended her healing and anointing services knew of the warmth of her healing touch. Those of you who are new members of our congregation know how you came into contact with Ina and how that experience led you to come to worship with us. Ina did not stand on a street corner with a Bible in one hand and preach out to anyone who passed by. Her quiet evangelism was an example to everyone and she enriched all the lives she touched.
Faith is a two way street. Certainly we put our faith in God but more miraculously, He puts his faith in us. I say this is miraculous because we too often have betrayed His love or turned away from him. We feel we can too often go our own way and forget He is even there. We put our self-interests ahead of any consideration of God. Despite this, He has never given up on us. What a story of faith is our Old Testament lesson this morning; we see faith operating on both levels. God had faith in Noah to build the ark exactly to his specifications. He instructed Noah to gather two of each of the animals in the world and put them in the ark. It is hard for us to even imagine the challenge of hunting down and bringing aboard both animals and birds without harming or hurting these. In a sense Noah was the first wild game catcher similar to those who work for modern zoos. He did his work however without the use of the sophisticated traps and nets that we have today. Noah reciprocated God’s faith in him. He didn’t challenge God and as the scripture tells us “did everything God commanded.” After 40 days and forty nights of rain when every landmark Noah would have recognized had disappeared from the earth we wonder if that faith wavered. Did Noah ever wonder if he would see dry land again?
We often waver in our faith especially when things don’t seem to be going quite the way we want them to. We want things done on our time not on God’s time and those two can be very different. We live in the instant on generation and we expect God to answer our doubts and fears with the same speed with which we change channels with our remote control.
As Lee mentioned in his sermon a few weeks ago, when we set out on the uncertain and uncharted waters of the future fear can be a powerful thing. We still miss the leadership of Rev. Ina and wonder if we will ever find anyone to replace her. We have memories of long vacancies and times when we felt God was no longer watching out for us.
In 1996, Rev. Peter Bush left St. Andrew’s to assume his ministry in Mitchell Ontario. When he left, I thought he more than likely would spend the rest of his career in Ontario. I could not have imagined that he would one day return as a minister in a church in Winnipeg or be our Interim Moderator. We are in an unique situation where a past minister of our church, one who knows the congregation and its needs, will be guiding and leading us through the process of finding a new minister. This has to be more than pure coincidence. God indeed is alive and at work right here in our midst.
Being a Christian means that we are constantly challenged. We cannot just talk the talk; we must walk with God in every one of our actions. Above all we need to learn patience to let go and let God. We need to be a Noah when he was commissioned to build the ark. We need to say to God “Okay it’s your ballgame – just lead us and we will go there no matter how rocky the road or how impossible what you ask may seem.” For with God all things are possible. There may be days that are dark and dreary but at the end God has promised that rainbow. Ina said many times that she believed God had plans for us. I do not doubt this at all. We need to sit back and be patient and keep faith with God. He has a perfect track record. All his plans will be revealed in His own good time. Our fears of the future should be replaced with a sense of excitement, as we do not know what adventure God has yet in store for us.
